/
Mu ‘The Lazing Master-to-Be’ Jiashi continues listening to the Missiontakers’ discussion.
After Collector has retreated from his failed attempt, Fei successfully exchanged for a piece of slightly more useful information with the information that she ‘saw a survivor walk into the fog.’
Xü Beijin tells them, “I was sitting here this whole time. I did not see anyone enter. I did not see anyone leave,” then he glances over at Baldie and Biceps, saying, “these two people came to the store once, but that’s it.”
All the Missiontakers fall into thought for a moment.
Fei couldn’t help but ask, “what you mean is that… those two, the one who killed and the one who died, you saw neither of them enter in the first place?”
Xü Beijin nods, and adds, “about fifteen minutes before the person who died fell, I was on the rooftop myself, but back then, there was nobody up there.”
Right now, he is seriously feeling like he’s currently inside a detective novel. The kind with the impossible cases. We have one suspect, but nobody knows where the murderer or the victim came from…
And, being told from the suspect’s perspective, he knows for sure he is innocent.
He is still watching Fei, as he can already imagine what Fei’s next question would be.
Fei asks, “why were you on the rooftop?”
Xü Beijin couldn’t help but chuckle, and the Missiontakers give him weird glances for that.
“There is a good view on the rooftop.”
He knows all too well that this isn’t really even much of an excuse or reason, but he can’t just say that it’s because his streaming system listed the rooftop as a location that he went to explore, now can he?
… Oh well, just like the viewers said. He ought to take into account his own characteristics some more.
Although for some reason, Fei doesn’t seem to be any more suspicious of him for that answer. Xü Beijin is also not keen on answering more things, so just says, “our deal is complete. You can go now.”
The Missiontakers leave as instructed, but Mu Jiashi, at the end of the group, gives him a rather complicated glance.
XĂź Beijin gives him a slight nod as a greeting, which seems to make Mu Jiashi even more conflicted.
Soon enough, though, the bookstore returns to peace.
XĂź Beijin sighs in relief.
Oddly, he thinks that perhaps his years of involuntarily solitary lifestyle has cause him to lose part of his social skills, which must be what was causing him to be uncomfortable talking to multiple Missiontakers at once.
Through the large glass window, he can see the Missiontakers standing around the corpse some more, before leaving the building altogether. They seem to be looking for clues elsewhere.
XĂź Beijin watches their retreating silhouette and falls into thought a little.
His gaze then turns towards the body──The one pushed down the building. Since the very beginning, nobody has seen him, or the murderer enter the building. Nobody saw anyone leave either.
The only moment they appeared was when they were on the rooftop.
Xü Beijin is regretting after-the-fact that he didn’t switch his camera over to the rooftop in time because it was too sudden. The Missiontakers were assembled at the body and talking, too, so he chose to focus on them instead.
Though… This murder, really is unusual.
He tries to think more deeply.
Once, he told Lin Qin, all the detective novels rely on tricks, and there must be something wrong with either the murderer, the victim, the crime scene, the time, the method, the clue, the witness… any of those.
In this case, then,
The murderer──Is nowhere to be found.
The victim──No one knows him; he’s dead.
Crime scene──Nobody saw it clearly. The Missiontakers looked from afar back then, and when they went up later to look, up to now when Xü Beijin changes the camera over, it looks all normal.
The time and method of the crime──Crystal clear. Nothing to doubt.
Clues──Basically nothing. They don’t even have a professional coroner who can examine the body.
Witnesses──The Missiontakers, Xü Beijin and even the viewers of the stream. They all saw clearly that someone pushed someone down from the rooftop.
After combing through those, Xü Beijin isn’t any closer to an answer. Instead, he had a few more questions.
One, the motive. Why kill him? What is the objective here?
Two, the relationship. Who is the victim to the killer and vice versa?
Three, what does this death mean in the context of this Nightmare?
Four, why did this death not cause the Nightmare to restart?
XĂź Beijin had no answers for those either.
Now he is really missing the detective dalao. At least he could have had someone to discuss with.
XĂź Beijin sighs and then yawns.
There is no water to be found in this bookstore, or any other drink for that matter. Though he did find a roll of sweets from the drawer. Though when praying that they aren’t expired, he suddenly remembers that expiration dates have become meaningless in the Nightmare.
Perhaps feeling relieved, or perhaps more feeling exasperated, he opens the package and eats one of the sweets to cheer himself up, as much as a piece of candy could, anyway.
In a sense, he thinks, he is already interfering actively with the Nightmare.
While Mu Jiashi, who knew him better than anyone else, may still have reservations, the others are clearly treating him as an important character in the Nightmare, even though he actually is not.
All he is doing is using information he gathered through the streaming system, and taking advantage of the information gap and timing, to paint an image of someone who is mysterious and knowledgeable.
It would seem the attempt has paid off. At least, the Missiontakers look to be convinced he isn’t the actual killer for now.
Of course, what Baldie suggested about him premeditating the murder is still a possibility, but that would require quite the perversion in personality on Xü Beijin’s part. After that brief conversation, the Missiontakers have naturally discovered that Xü Beijin is a much more mild-mannered man.
Thought the fact is, Xü Beijin himself doesn’t know that much about this Nightmare yet either. His identity might be busted eventually.
Finishing the candy, and feeling a bit more cheerful than before, he starts going through all the information he gathered so far in this Nightmare in his mind once again.
While absorbed in his own thoughts, suddenly, someone else walks into his bookstore from the outside.
The person walks towards his counter, and knocks on it. Then, Xü Beijin looks up, only to blurt out in shock, “Dai Wu?!”